The present invention relates to a fast acting mechanical valve, and more particularly to a valve which can open up a relatively large area within a relatively short time, such as microseconds.
In various applications, it may be desirable to open up large areas within short times against high pressures. For example, in an automotive application it may be desirable to open an intake or exhaust valve on an arbitrary selective basis, i.e. upon command, rather than by means of a crankshaft connection or the like. For such applications, it may be necessary to have actuation times lesss than about one hundred microseconds to open up a square inch of area against pressures up to about six hundred pounds per square inch. This is an enormous amount of work to do within a very short time span, and is not feasible with conventional concepts where a large mass must be moved a relatively large distance to achieve the valve opening.
The present invention provides a simple fast acting mechanical valve offering extremely high speed and only microdisplacement of a low mass, yet opening macroareas against high pressures. Macroeffects are provided using microporosity in combination with micro-movement.